Rain, Rain, Stay Today
by PeppermintChocolateQuills
Summary: Written for Jily Valentines Week. AU where Lily is a coffee barista with a bad day and a new customer who just seems to make everything better. Rated T for a few swear words.


**A/N Written for Jily Valentines Week. It is now 11:20pm. I'm a little late, heheheh. But it's still 2/8/15!**

"Have a nice day." Lily forced a smile on her face as that obstinate customer left. She had just entered the shop, when that customer had demanded to be served. She hadn't even gone to the back yet. She had three essays due tomorrow, 2 of which still needed an annotated bibliography and one which had not been started, and she was not in the mood to deal with more customers.

She sighed and started hitting her head against her counter. Luckily, there was no one left in the coffee shop. Or so she thought.

"Do you do normally do this or is it like a once in a while thing?" An amused voice enquired. Lily shot up straight.

Standing in front of her was a tall, bespectacled boy, about her own age, with crazy black hair. His hazel eyes twinkled. Rather attractively. Extremely attractive. In fact this boy was attractive. He was wonderfully ho-

"Um hi?"

Lily shook her head. Snap out of it, Evans.

She smiled. "Hi, welcome to the Corner Coffee Shop! What can I get you?"

He perused the menu. "Anything you recommend?"

"Honestly, my favorite is the hot chocolate. Even though this is a coffee. The hot chocolate is bloody brilliant."

He grinned. "I'll take the hot chocolate then."

Lily found herself relaxing in his company. "Wherever did you get that idea?"

She turned away to make the drink. The boy hummed and tapped his foot to the music as he waited.

"You never answered my question."

Lily looked at him. "Hmmm?"

"I asked you if you normally bang your head against the counter or is it a once in a while thing?"

Lily grinned. She just couldn't help herself. "Usually it's not my head being banged and it's not against the counter, that's for sure."

The boy threw back his head and laughed. It was a warm, contented laugh, a beautiful sound.

She realized she was staring at him. She quickly looked away to grab his drink and handed it to him over the cash register. "That'll be $2.88."

He was still grinning as he paid and shoved a couple bills in the tip jar. He took a sip of his drink,

"You're right this is perfect. You have some serious skills."

Lily smiled "Business secret, it's actually made from a mix."

He gasped, mock horrified. "I have been betrayed by my favorite coffee shop!"

Lily rolled her eyes affectionately. "Drama queen."

The boy answered "I also go by Potter. James Potter. And you are?" He asked.

"Evans. Lily Evans." She said with a smile.

He tipped a pretend hat to her with a posher accent than he had used previously. "Jolly good to meet you old chap. See you around town, eh old boy?" He grinned, made a silly face, and left.

Lily was still smiling after he had left.

Then things went downhill.

Marlene had just come in. She had waved at Lily and headed to the back.

An old man entered the shop and proceeded to comment rudely on Lily's hair, education, parents, and clothing. And to top it off, he had tried to grope her after he had paid, claiming he had paid for "better quality service" and when she had resisted, poured his scalding hot coffee over her and crumbled his cookie in her hair, and then stormed out, yelling about complaining to her manager.

Marlene sent Lily to the back, to take off early, saying she would handle the customers.

Lily pulled off Marlene's apron and threw it in her bag to laundry. Damn it, she still had those essays to do, and her clothes were soaked and she really needed to shampoo. Fuck.

She took a deep breath, Then another. And another.

She grabbed her jacket off a hook and her pack, and left, with a quick farewell to Marlene.

She walked to her apartment, a good twenty minute walk, and walked up to the door.

_Her keys. Where were her fucking keys?_

She rummaged through her pack frantically. No keys. She checked all her pockets. No goddamn keys.

She slumped against her door.

_Are you fucking kidding me?_

She slid to the ground.

_Fuck fuck fuck fuck. Now what?_

Naturally, it was at that moment that it started to rain. And it most certainly didn't help that she had no cover to stand or sit under and her incredibly expensive laptop with all her schoolwork was in her not-at-all-water-proof bag!

_Okay, calm. Let's go to the library._

She dashed through the rain, getting to the library in a record-setting two minutes. And it was closed.

Well, at least she had cover.

She was soaked, bedraggled, tired, and freezing.

All of a sudden she heard footsteps. Someone was coming.

A tall boy came into view. He was holding an umbrella and a cup of something. He spotted her and headed towards her.

As he came closer, Lily realized it was James.

"Hey" he said with a crooked grin. "Tough day?"

Lily sighed. "You have no idea."

He ruffled his wet hair. "I might actually. Part of it's probably my fault."

Lily laughed. "Don't worry, you weren't that bad of a customer."

He looked down at the ground. "It's not that actually."

He held out his hand. Sitting in his hand were her pristine, beautiful missing keys.

"I think I grabbed these off the counter thinking they were mine." He was running his hand through his hair very rapidly now.

Lily laughed, much to her and his surprise.

"You're not mad?" he asked.

"A little. More relieved though." She grinned as she got her keys back.

"Well to make up for it, I brought you hot chocolate." He grinned sheepishly. "And I'll walk you home since it is my fault you're soaking wet." He looked alarmed. "Not like soaking wet. But like wet wet." He face palmed as Lily laughed. "I'm not making this any better, am I?"

Lily stood up with her pack. "Actually, you're making things a lot better." She accepted the hot chocolate from him and shivered. It was deliciously warm.

"Off we go then!" He cheerily offered her the umbrella. And the two set off in the rain. As it would happen, James's umbrella was a one person umbrella. So, he ended up getting soaked.

"Well how was I supposed to know it was only for one person?" He complained as they arrived in front of her apartment. "It's not like it was written on the label!"

She laughed. She done a lot of that in the past ten minutes. She opened the door and stepped through. She turned around to face him.

"Well, thanks. That was really nice of you."

"No problem. And it was kind of my fault."

"Don't keep saying that, or I'll start blaming you!" She warned threateningly as they both laughed.

There was no sound, but their breathing. He messed up his hair even more.

He bit his lip and she got a front row view of it. They were almost touching. And then Lily decided, _Screw it._ She leaned in and kissed him, pressing her lips against his soft ones. He still tasted of hot chocolate. It was light and brief, but sweet. When they separated, they were both grinning.

"See you around Evans!" He was still tousling his hair. He jogged off in the rain.

"Wait, how?" She asked after him.

He laughed. "You aren't the only one who's got skills Evans!" and he disappeared in the rain.

She shook her head smiling, and closed the door.

It was only as she set the cup of hot chocolate down, that she looked at the messy handwriting on the cup. It read "_James_" in loopy handwriting with his phone number written next to it.

With a message. She laughed.

_Want more hot stuff? Call now!_

She most certainly did.


End file.
